EACH year Sergi Rubió has joined the huge demonstrations that Catalans have held since 2010 on September 11th, their national day, to demand independence from Spain. This year several hundred thousand people thronged the streets of Barcelona in warm sunshine. It was a festive, family affair with giant puppets and human castles. But there was a change, said Mr Rubió, a manager in his mid-30s from Vilafranca del Penedès, in cava country: “Now we have politicians who are standing up and fighting for their ideals.”
Days before, the Generalitat, as the Catalan government is known, had rammed through the Catalan parliament a law mandating a “binding” referendum on independence and another requiring a unilateral declaration of independence within 48 hours in the event of a “Yes” vote. “We have a single objective: to be able to decide on our future…and that prevails over everything else,” said Carles Puigdemont, the Catalan president.
With that, he set...Continue reading
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